I had a great time at Penguin Young Readers Group fall preview yesterday. Here are some things that I’m personally excited about:
Robin McKinley has a stand alone new book with magic and dogs called Shadows coming out in September.
Counting by 7s by Holly Sloan has already gathered fans from its galley and will be available in August — about a group of misfits making their own kind of “surrogate family” to face the world together. I can’t wait to read it!
I like the cover of The Twistrose Key by author Tone Almhjell. The setting is in Norway where she grew up and it’s compared to His Dark Materials!
Nancy Werlin has another book coming out as a sequel/companion to her very popular book Impossible, entitled Unthinkable. It’s a “puzzle” novel with heated romance…
Control by Lydia Kang is set in an interesting sounding futuristic world about genetic harvesting, bonds of outcasts, survivors, a promised page turner.
The Grimm Conclusion by Adam Gidwitz will be out in October where we will actually be meeting the Narrator face to face who will show his own vulnerability and explore how a story can be told and reshaped… Can’t wait!!!!
Gayle Forman’s follow up to Just One Day is coming put in October called Just One Year.
Andrew Smith’s winter book sounds exactly like the kind of crazy imaginative story that I’d LOVE to read. It’s called. Grasshopper Jungle.
I have to include this summary from Goodreads: ”
It is the end of the world, and nobody knows anything about it. Except for Austin and his best friend Robby. This is a story about bugs, urinal factories, Polish immigrants, the Great Depression, medieval Catholic saints, the war in Afghanistan, the caves of Altamira, President Nixon, an inflatable whale, cigarettes, corn, spawning walleyes, and the Rolling Stones.
And the end of the world. It’s unstoppable. You will get lost and found again on all the roads that keep crossing and crossing in the small town of Ealing, Iowa, at a place called Grasshopper Jungle.”
Mike Lupica’s new book will be about football: QB1: Inspired by the Football royal family of the Mannings, this book shows how a 14 year old high school freshman deals with the burden to be under the huge shadows cast by his father and older brother.
And there is A New Alex Rider? by Anthony Horowitz — Russian Roulette .. An origin story about Yassen and how he was trained and became the cold blooded assassin. I am actually going to read this as soon as my other books are don!!!
Celebrity chef Giada de Laurentiis has penned a series of picture books with travels and food for the younger readers. Sounds exactly right for my school where food is becoming a major curricular component.
Penguin Audio is presenting newly recorded Roald Dahl… With celebrity readers (Kate Winslet, Douglas Hodge, David Walliams, Stephen Fry, Peter Serafinowicz and more.) I am quite excited about this – check out the UK page for all the details.
Humor is always in demand. Hopefully debut author Matthew Ward delivers a lot of it that will resonate with young readers in Fantastic Family Whipple featuring a family that break all sorts of world records that don’t exist in our real world.
The Creature Department by Robert Paul Weston has another great cover that glows in the dark and will be accompanied by animated creatures online upon its fall release.
Intrigued by Meg Rosoff’s new and edgy YA book called Picture Me Gone.
The conclusion to Legend and Prodigy, Champion will be out on November. We were told that it’s a tear-jerker… wha??
Brotherhood by A.B. Westrick is set in Reconstruction era and about the establishment of the KKK.
Author Julie Berry of All the Truth That’s In Me came and shared with the attendees her creative process of this beautifully written romantic mystery set in a “watercolor-esque) Colonial America. The book started its life as an attempt at a second person narration but the final version is still from a first person point of view. Berry didn’t want to burden the very personal tale with too many historical details, but she still obsessively researched the time period to give it an authentic atmosphere. She hates anachronistic elements in historical fiction and is conscientious to not use words for whichever decade she set her stories in. BRAVO for an author who cares!!! I started the first few pages of the book on my way home.. and was instantly hooked by its writing! Can’t wait to finish the book I’m reading now to delve into it soon.
Until It Hurts to Stop by Jennifer R. Hubbard is about the aftermath of bullying: years after the perpetrator has forgotten about the incidents, the victim still remembers and lives its effects.
Fairrosa Cyber Library 